Page 58 of Eternal Ruin
She would.
June had known it ever since she was five. There was ticking bomb in her heart, and it would go off soon.
But before it did, there were several things on her list she wanted to achieve. Fall in love. Have her first kiss. Make friends. Not a lot, just a few. Help Kidan understand all this.
Another golden flash reflected in the windows. June turned quickly to the hallway and saw a figure slip away.
Who are you?she wondered.What do you want from me?
Lessons from the Last Sage
On the Six Manes of Blood
After they emerged from the abyss, Varos the Night Lion and Yonas the First Sage battled, drenching the land in blood and the sky in smoke. Equally matched, neither could vanquish the other. Finally, it was old age that parted them. Mortal, the First Sage died but not without passing his teachings and will to his beteseb and the Mot Zebeyas.
Yet Varos lived on. Century after century, he fed on the land, turning it to nothing but black rot. A stain on the earth, Varos transformed five lethal warriors into vampires. Together, they became the Six Manes of Blood.
These are their names:
Varos the Night Lion
Ralonar the Venomous Lion
Helenik the Horned Lioness
Demasus the Fanged Lion
Lidia the Split-Tongued Lioness
Nira the Silent Lioness
Only a single Mane of Blood is well-known today—Demasus the Fanged Lion. So much so, most believe Demasus, not Varos, birthed the vampires. The others hide so well they’ve dissolved into myths.
Demasus was Varos’s third creation, the one who would betray him in the end, choosing to work with me and create the Three Binds. It is our single purpose to ensure the binds never shatter. To ensure Yonas’s will is inherited from child to child. And that the sacrifice for such power continues to be paid.
*Accurate to the myth found inYe Abyssi Tarik,pages 35–37.
UXLAY’SHOUSE VOTE
MAKARY HOUSE
100 DRANAICS
MAKARY HOUSE HAS DELIBERATED AND DECIDED BORDER HOUSES SHOULD BE OFFERED THE POSITION OF DEAN. THEY SUPPORT THE IMMEDIATE REMOVAL OF ADANE HOUSE FROM THE MIDDLE POSITION.
Declared at the Mot Zebeya Courts on Thursday the 22nd.
24.
KIDAN
Kidan fought sleep, alternating between two subjects in the library. Learning more about her mother, and trying to uncover more myths about the artifacts and how they worked. The exhausting process was also keeping her mind off Samson’s proposal. She had managed to answer the second question about her mother in the Four Points of Culture.
Religion.
There were two major religions in Uxlay—one whose adherents worshipped the Last Sage, like the Mot Zebeyas, who called themselves Guards of Death; and one whose adherents worshipped Demasus the Fanged Lion. In her mother’s private diaries, sketches of impala horns were displayed along with chains of bones, both of which were used in praising the Last Sage. It was similar to GK’s journal, the meditations on stillness and peace.
A prayer that always said:The loss of one finger should cut as deeply as the loss of a hand.
